Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Mary Garrard
Alice Neel American
Not on view
In 1977, the prominent and influential feminist art historian Mary Garrard (born 1937) commissioned Neel for her portrait. While the final painting shows Garrard rather unusually bundled up in winter outwear, this preliminary sketch from the same sitting depicts her extending her hand thoughtfully to her chin and calls greater attention to her body because she is more appropriately dressed for the indoors. Neel began their sitting quite provocatively, Garrard later recalled: "Alice asked me if I were a lesbian . . . and it made me quite uneasy."
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